Field of the Invention
The aspect of the embodiments relates to a technique for selecting one or more images from among a plurality of images.
Description of the Related Art
As it has become common to use digital cameras and smartphones to capture still images and moving images, an enormous number of still images and moving images are captured and stored by a user. Selecting images (frame images in the case of moving images) from among such an enormous number of still images and moving images to create an album is a laborious task for a user.
To cope with such circumstances, three methods for automatically selecting and arranging images from an image group including still images and moving images have been proposed in Japanese Patent No. 5686673. The first method is a method for extracting a predetermined number of frame images from each moving image in accordance with a table, which defines the number of images to be extracted in accordance with duration of the moving image, for example. The second method is a method for extracting a frame image from a moving image if a result of analysis of moving images indicates that an amount of change between the frame images has reached a fixed value, for example, the direction in which the face is oriented has changed by 15 degrees or more. The third method is a method for extracting recommended frame images within a range not exceeding the number of images (reference number) that can be arranged on a page if the sum of the number of still images and the number of extracted frames exceeds the reference number. Japanese Patent No. 5686673 also discloses another method for extracting recommended images from each group including still images and moving images.
However, the first and second methods have an issue in that even if frame images have poor quality, for example, if all frame images of a moving image are out of focus, such frame images having poor quality are arranged. In addition, the third method has an issue in that if moving images include the reference number of recommended frame images or more, all of the reference number of images are frame images and no non-frame images are possibly arranged. In addition, in the case where recommended images are extracted in accordance with the other method disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5686673, no images extracted from moving images are arranged if the reference number of recommended images ranked high include no image extracted from moving images and all the recommended images are still images.